While no solution to the crisis is in sight for the moment, the federal state risks finding itself in an effective “shutdown” situation on Friday evening at midnight.
Published on 20/12/2024 08:16
Updated on 20/12/2024 08:33
Reading time: 1min
Far from the special law on the budget in France, a shutdown is in sight in the United States. The American House of Representatives largely rejected, Thursday, December 19, a new budget text from the Republicans aimed at avoiding a paralysis of the federal state. This stinging failure increases uncertainty before the fateful hour of midnight on Friday evening, after which federal public services risk being paralyzed, which would notably lead to technical unemployment for hundreds of thousands of civil servants and the freezing of several social benefits. or even the closure of certain daycare centers.
The elected Republican representatives, despite having a majority in the lower house, had submitted this new proposal to a vote, the day after the torpedoing by Donald Trump and Elon Musk of a previous agreement negotiated with the Democrats, which would have avoided in the United States a shutdown just before Christmas. The future American president gave his blessing to the new Republican text, welcoming “a very good deal for the American people”. While two-thirds of the votes were necessary for adoption, the text did not even reach a simple majority, with 38 Republicans joining the Democrats’ “no”.
The path forward is now uncertain for the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson. He is being urged on the one hand by the Democrats to return to the negotiated agreement, and on the other by certain conservative elected officials who are refusing outright any text that does not include a budget cut to compensate for the new aid.
